What is Alt Text and why does it matter?

Alt text (sometimes called an Alt Tag) is a short text description added to an image, used by search engines and by screen readers for visually impaired visitors. It describes what's in the image so that both people and machines who can't see it still understand what it's showing.

Depending on how your site is set up, alt text may be drawn automatically from the image's title field, or you may have a dedicated alt text field to fill in separately. Either way, the principles for writing it well are the same. The Alt text should be a short and accurate description of what is in the image.

Why Alt Text matters

Alt text matters for two main reasons:
1. Accessibility. A well-written alt text allows screen readers to describe an image accurately to visually impaired visitors, giving them the same context and understanding as anyone else viewing the page.
2. Search engine performance. Search engines like Google use alt text as additional metadata to understand what an image shows. Sites with well-written alt text on their images generally perform better in search than those without — it's a small detail that genuinely adds up across a site.